With our Fighting Men Part 21

"'Sunday services are held whenever possible. When the men are in the trenches on Sunday, arrangements are made to conduct service as soon as they return to billets. These services are held in barns or, when weather permits, in the open air. At each service I have endeavoured to give the men a text or thought to strengthen and help them throughout the week. The intense interest taken by all ranks in these services renders them very impressive.

"'4. _Soldiers' Clubs._

"'The comfort of men at the front has not been lost sight of. I was requested by Divisional Headquarters to establish clubs in every brigade area to break the monotony of life during the quiet winter months. These clubs contain reading, writing, and game rooms and a refreshment bar, where the men can obtain hot coffee. My thanks are due to the Convener of the Army and Navy Chaplains' Committee, who kindly sent me cases of general literature which proved most useful and interesting to the men. Friends at home supplied games of various kinds, as well as stationery, pencils, and such useful articles.

Lectures and concerts have been given, and everything possible has been done to brighten the soldier's life.'"

"The Rev. J.T. Bird, M.A., C.F., writing from No. 10 General Hospital, Rouen, says:

"'In accordance with instructions from the princ.i.p.al chaplain I do what I can to minister to Presbyterian troops within reach, where no Presbyterian chaplain is available. This has usually meant, on Sundays, holding a service in a Reinforcements Camp (infantry or cavalry) in the morning, and two services in hospital: one in the forenoon and one in the evening. One of the hospitals here is the Scottish Red Cross Hospital--excellently equipped. I did what I could for this hospital in the way of visitation and Sunday evening services up till lately, when the Rev. A.M. Maclean of Paisley Abbey was able to undertake these duties in addition to his work at a neighbouring Infantry Camp. The attendance at my service held at the Reinforcements Camp, at St. Nazaire and here, has varied from about 50 to 600, according to circ.u.mstances. I have found the Church of Scotland Psalm leaflets and the little blue booklet _With the Colours_ very useful for all services. During the week one is kept busy visiting sick and wounded in four hospitals; holding occasional week-night services for convalescents and a.s.sisting to get up concerts for them; writing letters for patients too ill to write themselves; and distributing gifts of all descriptions (literature, cigarettes; woollen comforts, &c., &c.) sent by kind people at home.

"'The Sunday evening service has always been a united one (Church of England and Presbyterian), and the Church of England chaplains I have found very willing to co-operate in this way.

"'I am glad to state that the number of Presbyterians who have died in hospital has not been at all large, considering the large number of patients treated, and this fact I think bears eloquent testimony to the excellent equipment and comfort of the hospitals, as well as to the skill of the medical officers and the great devotion of the nursing staff. The mother of a wounded Seaforth Highlander, who was lying in this hospital, came recently all the way from Inverness with two other friends to see her son, and they all seemed deeply gratified and impressed by the excellence and efficiency of the hospital. All funerals of soldiers are announced beforehand in the French local journal, and here, as at St. Nazaire, French ladies attend and reverently place flowers on the grave after the burial service. They specially decorated the graves for Easter. Such attention must, I think, be gratifying to the sorrowing relatives. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper has frequently been dispensed, and the number of communicants is always much larger than in time of peace at home stations.'"

"The Rev. Professor Kay, D.D., A.C.F., writes from 1st Echelon General Headquarters, France:

"'A chaplain's first lesson, as I have learned it, is to give due honour to the men he serves. All combatants have offered the supreme sacrifice a man can make for any object; how can anyone not of their consecrated number be worthy to say anything at all to them? Their great vow is too sacred for words; the loss of comrades and the uncertain future are felt but not discussed. The example of Christ which made martyrdom an easy and a right thing for the apostles, the new Covenant in His blood, the grace of His redeeming sacrifice--these acquire fresh power and interest. The combatant understands them, if a chaplain be an adequate minister of Christ's Evangel.

"'An army on active service cannot guarantee food and shelter with certain regularity; far less can it provide fixed routine for common wors.h.i.+p. Buildings, organs, choirs, Sabbaths are often unavailable.

The army must be always ready to move and to act; it is not possible to set everybody free at one time. Hence one has to discover at what times there will be leisure among the various units. Recreation in clubs and reading-rooms is often easy to contrive, and hours for wors.h.i.+p can also be arranged. In hospitals periodic services are possible. In any regiment there are likely to be various denominations of Christians, and minorities must sometimes do without their own type of chaplain. Hymns and Holy Scripture serve as uniting influences, and the fair and friendly feeling among the chaplains in this vicinity makes work easy. Work here makes it evident that the Church of Scotland as by law established is only one of a wide Sisterhood of Presbyterian churches. Canadian, English, Irish, Welsh Presbyterians have been nearly as numerous as those from Scotland, and one representative from South Africa appeared on the list.

"'The battle of Neuve Chapelle caused a stream of casualties to flow past this point for a week. Some died and were laid to rest beside their comrades, their last messages being sent to their startled kinsfolk at home. Some who were weary and willing to die took heart again through sympathy and skilful nursing. One boy of seventeen in sore torture was heard half-consciously crying: "Ah! bonnie Scotland, what I'm suffering for you now"; he slowly recovered and did not grudge his pains. Those at home for whom brave men are suffering and dying should be done with tippling and trifling.

"'The work at this point includes attendance at three hospitals and the conducting of services for troops as required. During last week there were only four cases "seriously and dangerously ill" and about thirty men sick and wounded. At a Rest Depot a cla.s.s was formed to prepare for First Communion, and at a special service on Good Friday eleven soldiers were admitted. The Sacrament was administered on Easter Sunday morning, and there were about sixty communicants. These included a few Baptists, Congregationalists, and others, who, if members of their own churches, were admitted and invited to this Communion. A Church Parade with an Irish cavalry regiment followed at 11 o'clock. In the twilight the largest soldiers' club in the district was crowded for Evening Service. There the Bishop of London--candid as King Alfred and persuasive as Alfred Tennyson--encouraged and blessed us all, and his inspiring words hallowed the great enterprise which brings us here.'"

The following statement of the work of the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation at the front and at home has been written by the Rev. W.

Kingscote Greenland, at the request of the General Secretary, Mr. A.K.

Yapp.

"No branch of the religious and social work among our soldiers during the war, both at the front and in the home camps, has been so well known and universally acknowledged and appreciated as that accomplished by the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation. The press has spread the fame of it far and wide and devoted leaders and columns of details to it. Any exhaustive story therefore is as unnecessary as it would be disproportionally large. What makes it imperative, however, that at least a brief summary of its widespread and manifold activities should be included, is that it has been a work of quite interdenominational character--all churches equally contributing both workers and money--and therefore the credit, if credit there is to be, must be shared among all. The fact of it is that the Y.M.C.A. has acted throughout as a species of central bureau or clearing-house, by the ready and available means of which anybody and everybody desirous of a.s.sisting in the moral and spiritual welfare of our troops could do so without calling into existence new organisation and machinery.

"And here it must be mentioned that two facts were, humanly speaking, responsible for the striking emergence of the Y.M.C.A. into this unique position. The first fact is that for fifteen years past the a.s.sociation has had great experience of this sort of work by reason of its tents in all the Territorial camps every summer, so that the war only meant an extension, though an immense extension, of activities to which it was no stranger. And, secondly, the courageous spiritual statesmans.h.i.+p and moral daring of the General Secretary, Mr. A.K.

Yapp, who on the outbreak of war, and in the holiday season too, launched this policy.

"The story of that breathlessly summoned council meeting in the Headquarters of the National Council in Russell Square on August 5 is a veritable romance. Telegrams brought holiday-making secretaries hurrying from the seaside, and in a few hours it was decided to pitch canvas tents wherever the new recruits for Kitchener's Army were located, and issue a national appeal for the necessary funds. As everybody now knows, this was done--hundreds of tents for refreshments, reading, writing, and rest sprang up as if by magic all over the land; thousands of pounds of money flowed in from high and low; and the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation was swept forward in the tide from being a semi-disparaged adjunct of the Church's care for a certain type of young townsman, to that of a great ally of the nation in its hour of moral, no less than physical, agony. The tale of the swift adaptation of practically the entire premises, resources, and plant of the a.s.sociation to the military and naval emergency, involving almost superhuman hours of thought and skill, can never adequately be told. The whole country was mapped out, committees formed, hundreds of workers engaged, stationery ordered, stores and motor-transport acquired, the patronage of the King and the approval of the War Office secured, and in a few weeks the machinery for the safeguarding of the leisure hours of the troops who were flocking to the colours was in working order.

"Then came the late autumn with its rains and floods, and the necessity for better accommodation than canvas tents. Wooden huts were obviously required. But these would cost money--roughly 300 at least apiece. A great appeal was issued for the necessary funds, and the response was amazing. Several hundreds of thousands of pounds were contributed, many donors presenting a hut and furnis.h.i.+ng it, and as winter closed in comfortable and warm and well-equipped huts replaced everywhere the sodden tents.

"As the military situation broadened and developed, the a.s.sociation followed suit, and huts were built and opened in the base towns in France, Egypt, and India, while many young men were sent on board the troop-s.h.i.+ps as lay chaplains to take charge of the soldiers on these journeys and to look after them on their landing in foreign and colonial ports.

"And so the situation as it stands at this present time of writing is roughly as follows: 600 Y.M.C.A. centres in the home camps, of which 300 are permanent wooden huts. In France 50 centres, of which 36 are huts. In Egypt 8 centres in charge of 10 young Christian men sent out by the a.s.sociation, and in India 30 centres, manned by 12 a.s.sociation workers. To this record must be added over 2000 camp workers, only a very small proportion of whom are paid, and the innumerable ladies who either serve at the counters or are quartered with local committees of management. To this, further, several other inspiring features and items must still be added. Under the Y.M.C.A. auspices, Princess Victoria has a number of field kitchens across in France and Flanders which supply the men at the actual front. Also, and by no means least, scores of clergymen and ministers of all denominations give some, and a few all their time, to conducting services and "talks" in the huts in the evenings, while among the voluntary workers on Salisbury Plain, at the Crystal Palace, the White City, Harwich and Felixstowe, Hindhead, Milford, Southport, Alnwick and along the Tyne, and scores of other camps, are to be found university professors and students, men from all the theological colleges, retired city merchants, ministers with leave of absence from their churches, business men moved to leave their shops and offices in the care of wives and clerks and managers, and almost every type of Christian man and profession and occupation.

"All this deals, as it will be seen, with the many externals of the a.s.sociation work, and takes little or no account of the various more directly spiritual agencies. Almost every well-known evangelist has given up his time to the Y.M.C.A. huts, including such men as Mr. W.R.

Lane, Mr. C.M. Alexander, and the Rev. Canon Hicks, while the work of the Pocket Testament League and of Temperance has been wonderfully successful.

"Beginning on the Wednesday after Easter and continuing for seven days, a special effort was made throughout the camps to make it a Decision Week for the men of the new army. A pledge of acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and King was to be taken and a War Roll signed. It is too early to give the final results, but already many thousands have signed, and the reports of camp workers, chaplains, clergymen, and ministers are most enheartening.

"Of the actual meetings held, of the conversations that have taken place, of the strange, moving, pathetic and thrilling incidents that have marked this tragic and glorious nine months, much has already been written, and books could be filled. Thousands of men of our homes and churches have written and spoken most affectionately of the service rendered to them in the Y.M.C.A. tents, and of the lessening of their temptations thereby, while many hundreds of thousands of dear ones have received letters written under the quiet conditions only obtainable in the a.s.sociation's huts, and, be it added, on their millions of sheets of free notepaper.

"Of the generosity of the public, the kindness and appreciation of the generals and colonels and officers generally, and perhaps, most of all, of the untiring and self-denying labour of those who have manned the huts through these long months, short-handed, overworked, cheery, and eager, in cold and mud, it is impossible fully to speak. Let it suffice to say that the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation is deeply humbled and proud, by reason of the honour G.o.d has manifestly conferred upon it in giving it this supreme chance of serving the interests of His Kingdom."

CHAPTER XII

WHEN THE MEN COME HOME

Clergymen Serving in the Ranks--A Strange Burial Incident--When the New Army Comes Back--Will the Churches be Ready?--They are Coming.

The needs of the country led a good many men, already ordained to the Christian ministry, to enter the new Army. The question whether they should or should not do this was, as I have already indicated, a matter of some dispute, but as the war went on a testimony gathered as to the influence of such as did enlist. Thus "D." wrote to the _Times_:

"At our table, which served for meals and other purposes, sat opposite to me a clergyman of the Church of England, to do his best with us to fight and prevent his country being treated like poor Belgium. We knew what he was, and what he had given up to join us, and his influence in that hut, and in his platoon, was greater than that of the khaki-clad official chaplain who paid us occasional visits. We all respected him and knew his aversion to things which were often thought lightly of by us, and one look at his good and serious face would often keep back an oath, which would come out naturally to a troublesome steer or a slow and careless sailor, and many a tale which would have been thought appropriate in a smoking-room or round a camp fire remained untold in his presence. This has been my experience of one man, and I am glad to say that in this battalion there are already serving as private soldiers some half-dozen clergymen."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHEN THE MEN COME HOME.

_Drawn by Arthur Twidle._]

Let one of them also answer for himself. I do not know his name, but he is a young Wesleyan minister who enlisted in the R.A.M.C. last October, and who is, as I write, now at the forefront of the fight.

The following extracts from his letter were published in the _Daily News_:

"The call comes for stretcher-bearers, and I volunteer to go with No.

3. The medical officer comes out, flashes his torch, and gives the order: 'Men to march in front of the waggon. Whole party walk--march!'

"We are off. Ten paces ahead walked the medical officer, a captain; behind him a sergeant and four men of the squad. Then comes the ambulance waggon, with the great Red Cross on both sides, one man driving. Inside are the stretchers (one man in the squad carries a surgical haversack), and behind the waggon comes the drag-horse, with a waggon orderly mounted on it. This horse will help us out of a ditch or the mud, if the waggon gets stuck in it.

"We head straight for the trenches. It is very dark; light rain splashes on our faces, and there is a cold wind. Occasionally the captain flashes his electric torch as we pa.s.s an outpost or a belated infantry man returning from the firing line. The rattle of the waggon sounds like the pa.s.sing of heavy guns in the still night, and we wonder whether we shall draw the enemy's sh.e.l.l fire. A road with a waggon on it is a good spot to drop a 'Jack Johnson' on now and then.

"Suddenly the sky is illuminated by a brilliant German star-sh.e.l.l with a long white tail. Every figure, every tree, every stone in the road is revealed for one moment to the enemy's snipers and artillery.

Egyptian darkness follows the flash, and out of it ahead we hear, coming towards us, the tramp of many marching men. Their officer stops us.

"'I have left two men on the road--ptomaine poisoning. Pick them up, will you?' he asks.

"'Yes. Good-night!'

"On we go again. The rain pours, the wind is rising to a gale. The road is very narrow. The wheels of the waggon plunge into a deep rut and send a spray of mud up into our faces. Soon we pull up before a little building at the side of the road not far from our firing line.

It is the dressing station where the wounded are brought until the waggons can come to convey them to the hospitals out of the fire zone.

"Our captain and the sergeant enter the building, and a corporal in charge of the place whispers, 'Sir, we have one dead here.'

"'One dead! We did not know that. We have no chaplain.'

"The sergeant whispers to the captain that I am a Wesleyan minister.